.^ ^ 



W .-- "^ 


E 105 


.H79 


Copy 1 


^ A 


^-^-!=:.4 



r^> 



i:_. ^ 




VV'^''^^^^^^-^-^^*^' 



a 



^-/>^- 



\3 



^jtjrnJi-O-mxi OLTOjCi -JlJJC- 



\^ 



11 





lass 



iiiiiik 



■ H7f 



PRFSKNTIil) liY 



VINLAND 
AND ITS RUINS. 

SOME OF THE EVIDENCES THAT NORTHMEN WERE 
IN MASSACHUSETTS IN PRE-COLUMBIAN DAYS. 



CORNELIA HORSFORD. 

u 



REPRINTED FROM APPLETONS' POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 
FOR DECEMBER, 1899. 





ulur Science Monthly 
1899. 



v./y f^ /■'/■///// //' 



/■'/:/// '/■/■ I 



11% 

" vL 3 




Reprinted from Appletons' Popular Science Monthly 
for December^ 1899. 



VINLAND AND ITS RUINS. 

;^OME OF THE EVIDENCES THAT NORTHMEN WERE 
IN MASSACHUSETTS IN PRE-COLUMBIAN DAYS.* 

V 

By CORNELIA HORSFORD. 

'HE evidences that Nortiimeii were in Massachusetts in pre- 

■■- Columbian days are drawn from two sources, geography and 

■chseology. The archseological evidence is found by comparing 

"tain ruins in Massachusetts with ruins of the Saga-time in Ice- 

nd, and also with the native and early European ruins on the 



i^d;Mj..iiua>.,/t| 





Plan of the House of Eric the Red in Icki.ani). 

coast of North America. The geographical evidence is found by 
comparing the descriptions of the country called Yinland in Ice- 
landic literature with the coast of North America. 



* A paper read before the Viking Club of London on December 16, 1898 ; also before 
ihe Section of Anthropology of the American Association for the Advancement of Science 
at the Boston meeting, August, 18t*8. 

Copyright, 1899, bt D. Appleton and I'ompant. 



2 V INLAND AND ITS RUINS. 

The geograpliieal data for this paper are taken from each and 
all of the three oldest manuscript versions of the story of Vinland. 
because they complement each other where the descriptions varv 




An Indian- Fireplace in Massachusetts. '. 

in detail. These are called the Flat Island Book, Eric the Red's. 
Saga, and Thorfinn Karlsefui's Saga. ( 

If the coast of Xorth America should repeat the same geo- 
graphical features, it would obviously be impossible to determine 
the site of Vinland by geography alone. Let us see if this is so. 
It is stated in Eric the Red's Saga that Karlsefni's party, which] 
consisted of one hundred and sixty men and their live stock in| 
three vessels, after sailing southwest from Greenland for a number j 
of days and seeing two new countries, came to a certain cape. ; 
" They cruised along the land and the land lay on the starboard. . . . . 
There were there an open, harborless coast and long strands and 
sand banks. And they went in boats to the land and found there 
the keel of a ship, and they named it Keel Cape. And they gave 
a name to the strands and called them Wonder Strands, because 
they were long to sail by. Then the land became scored with bays, 
and they steered the ships to the bays.* They remained here for 
some time, but they had not yet seen the Vinland which Leif Erik- 
son had found a few years before. 

Thorhall started to seek for it '" northward round Wonder- 
strand and westward off Keel Cape." Therefore we must first 
look for a cape, the trend of whose shore is north and south, with 
open water west of it, and beyond that again land. This cape must 
have a long, sandy, harborless coast, with sand banks on the east, 
and it must be broken up into bays farther to the south, and one 
of these bays must be large enough and deep enough for three 
vessels, one of which could carry at least fifty men across the 

* The translations are from the Icelandic texts in The Finding of Wineland the Good, 
by Arthur Middleton Reeves. Henry Frowde, London. 



V IN LAND AND ITS RUINS. 3 

Atlantic. The Icelandic word " oroefi " wliicli is nsed in this text 
means " harborless," and is the descriptive local name of the con- 
vex, sandy, nnsheltered coast of sonthern Iceland (Orcefa), the 
present Skaptafells district, from Stokksnes to Dyrholaey. This 
gives a clear idea of what we ought to look for along the coast 
of North America. 

The eastern coast of North America * shows ns that, south of 
rock-bound Labrador, the only places north of New York where 
capes are to be found jutting northward from the land are north- 
ern Newfoundland, Cape Breton Island, the southern shores of 
the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Cape Ann, and Cape Cod. 

There is no stretch of open, harborless, sandy coast from 
Cape Bauld to Cape Spear, with its steep, sterile, rocky shores.f 
There are two or three stretches of unbroken coast from three 
to five miles long, north and south of Canada Bay, northwest of 
Conception Bay, and northeast of Bonavista Bay, but these are 
not the shores of capes jutting to the north, with long strands and 
sand banks. 

If we begin with Cape Breton and follow- the coast northward 
we find no extensive stretch of harbor ^ss coast until we reach 
Island Point. From this point to Cape Smoke there is a compara- 
tively unbroken coast about thirty miles in extent whose " head- 
lands are composed of primary and metamorphic rocks, princi- 
pally granite, with clay slate in nearly vertical strata, while sand- 
stone, conglomerate, shale, limestone, and occasionally beds of 
gypsum and red and yellow marl occur on the intervening shores." % 




...... uimp^^n%. 

Icelandic Fireplace in supposed Norse Kuin in Massachusetts. 

Here, then, there are not long strands and sand banks. Cape North 
is a headland of slate one thousand feet high.* Dr. Gustav Storm, 
of the University of Christiania, in his well-known book, Studier 
over Vinlandsreisenie, etc., page 42, points out a resemblance be- 
tween Cape Breton and Keel Cape, and states that the eastern 
shores of Cape Breton Island are " specially described as low-lying 
and sandy." According to the United States Hydrographic Oftice 

* Chart of North Atlantic, No. 98. Norie & Wilson, London. 

\ Belle Isle to Boston, No. 102. Norie & Wilson, London. 

X United States Hydrographic Office Report, No. 99, 189*7, p. 315. « Ibid., p. 314. 



4 V INLAND AND ITS RUINS. 

Report, No. 99, page 289, the southeast coast of Cape Breton 
Island from Michanx Point to Cape Gabarus " is low and has a 
barren and rocky appearance, and the shore is broken into numer- 
ous lakes and ponds, protected from the sea by beaches of gravel 
and some small rocky islands and ledges. . . . From Cape Ga- 
barus to Cape Breton, a distance of fifteen miles, the land is of 
moderate height and the shore broken into coves and small har- 
bors." Between Louisburg and Cape Breton, eight miles be- 
yond, " there are three small harbors, too intricate and rocky in 
their entrances to admit vessels of any burden," and Cape Breton 
itself is " low and rocky and covered with grassy moors." This is 
unlike the open, harborless coast with long strands and sand banks 
of the Sagas. Within the Gulf of St. Lawrence the capes which 
jut to the north are Cape St. George," with rocky, precipitous 
cliffs six hundred feet above the sea; ISTorth Point, + on Prince Ed- 






m^ ^ 



^ c- 




10 Milters 

Plan or supposed Norse Ruin in Massachusetts. 



ward Island, Avhich is broken about five miles down the coast by 
Tignish River, and beyond that by the red sandstone cliff of Cape 
Ivildare; Escuminiac Point,:{; at the entrauce to Miramichi Bay, 
a broken coast with low sandstone cliffs; and Birch Point,* on 
Miscou Island, with a steep cliff of saudstone ten feet high. 

Campobello is a rocky island, and Cape Ann is rocky and has 
no long, harborless coast. 

Cape Cod || juts to the north with open water west of it, and 
beyond that again land. It has also a long, harborless coast on 
the east, with strands and sand banks, and is scored with bays 
toward the south. 

Cape Cod, then, is the only cape north of Sandy Hook which 



* United States Hydrographic Office Report, No. 100, 1897, p. 10. 

t Ibid., pp. 130, 152. t Ibid., p. 167. * Ibid., p. 17.3. 

II United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, General Chart of the Coast, No. VII. 



V INLAND AND ITS RUINS. 



5 



corresponds to the description in the Saga, and near here we should 
look for Vinland, leaving the southern shores until later. 

Yinland, which was discovered by Leif Erikson, is only de- 
scribed as Yinland in the Flat Island Book. This account states 
that Leif Erikson's party '" came to a certain island which lay north 
of the land." That Leif Erikson should have thought that Cape 
Cod was an island is obvious, because it is impossible from the cape 




i^A.-i Wall ..t a .-l i i'..,-.i.i. .\ok.--l lifiN ix Massachusetts, showing Layers of Turf 

BETWEEN THE StONES. 



to see the southern shore of Massachusetts Bay twenty miles away. 
There is no need to explain why he also believed it to lie north of 
the land, as no one and final answer can be given, although sev- 
eral can be easily suggested; that water and land again lav to the 
west is clearly stated in all three accounts. 

Afterward " they sailed into that sound which lay between the 
island and the promontory which jutted northward from the land; 
they steered in westward past the promontory. There was much 



6 VINLAND AND ITS RUINS. 

shallow water at ebb tide, and then their ship stood up and then 
it was far to look to the sea from the ship." Across the water 
which lies between Cape Cod and the mainland is Rocky Point, 
a high and therefore noticeable promontory jutting northward 
from the land. Past this one can only continue westering to the 
north, and thence we must now look along the land to find the 
place where, in the words of the Plat Island Book, '^ a certain 




West Wall of a supposed Norse Ruin in Massachusetts, showing Layers uf Turf 

BETWEEN THE StONES. 



river flowed out of a certain lake," having, as was said before, 
great shallows at its mouth at ebb tide, whence it was far to look 
to the ocean. 

Following round the inner coast of Cape Cod, we pass Plymouth 
and on to Boston before we find in the Charles River and Boston 
Back Bay a river flowing through a lake into the sea, where great 
shallows at its mouth are a conspicuous feature and it is far to 
look to the ocean. 



VIJVLAJVJJ AJSri) ITS RUINS. 7 

At this point we may add one more feature to the description 
of Keel Cape — that it appears to be an island when approached 
from the north. Now we can continue our search down the Nortli 
Atlantic coast, noting that Sandy Hook is not scored with bays at 
the south, and that Cape Henlopen and Cape Henry could not 
have been mistaken for islands.* 

There is one event described in all three versions of the Vinland 
story — the battle with the natives. According to the Flat Island 
Book, this battle took place in Vinland; according to the other 
two Sagas, Vinland was supposed to be north of Keel Cape. But 
in these Sagas it is said that this battle took place south of Keel 
Cape, wdiere Karlsefni had found a river flowing through a lake 
into the sea. 

It was this word soutli which led the Danish archaeologist Carl 
Christian Rafn to think tliat Vinland was in Rhode Island. Al- 
though there is no land south of Cape Cod (with the exception of 
jSTantacket Island) between Cape Cod and Santo Domingo, it is only 
fair to look once more at Mount Hope Bay f (Kafn's Vinland) to 
see whether it really corresponds to the description before us. The 
Taunton River flows through Mount Hope Bay to the sea, but there 
are no shallows here, and the mouth of the river looks directly out, 
southward and not eastward, to the open ocean. In Boston Harbor, 
moreover, are great tongues of land and islands such as are de- 
scribed in Eric the Red's Saga. There is perhaps cause for com- 
ment in the use of the word " f joll," fells or mountains (accord- 
ing to Vigfusson j^), applied to the hills about Boston, of which 
the highest, " Blue Hill," is seven hundred and ten feet high. If 
" fells " is a correct translation, it would be unobjectionable. 

One morning Karlsefni saw the natives in their skin boats row^- 
ing to^vard his house, from the south, past a promontory. It is 
not difficult to find the only promontory past which canoes could 
have come from the south between the mouth of the river and 
Watertown, the head of navigation. Here, then, Leif Erikson and 
Thorfinn Karlsefni should have built their houses, if this history 
be true, because this place corresponds with the description of 
Vinland, and also because we can find no other place on the coast 
like it. 

Having found what appears to be the site of Thorfinn Karl- 
sefni's houses, it is well to inquire next what the characteristic 
features of the jSTorse houses of the Saga-time were, and what traces 
one might hope to find after nearly nine hundred years. 

* Chart of North Atlantic, No. 98. Norie & Wilson, London. 

f United States Coast and Geodetic Survey Chart, No. 1.3. Cuttvhunk to Block Island. 
:]: Icelandic-Englisli Dictionary. R. Cleasby. Enlarged and completed by Gudbrand 
Vigfusson. 



8 VI N LAND AND ITS RUINS. 

Icelandic homesteads of that period usually consisted of a main 
house, composed of three or four apartments and one or two out- 
houses, built on the surface of the ground. 

The walls were one and a half metres thick, and from one to 
one and a half metres high, built of alternate layers of turf and 




Ancient \Vall in Iceland, showing Layers of Turf between the jStones. 

stones on the inside and on the outside, the space between being 
filled in with earth. Often, however, the walls were built entirely 
of turf and earth, or with only disconnected rows of stones at the 
base. Wood also w^as sometimes used. It is stated in Thorhnn 
Ivarlsefni's Saga that some of the trees in Yin! and were '' so large 
they w^ere laid in a house." 

A long, narrow fireplace usually extended through the middle 
of the principal room, and an essential feature w^as the cooking 
fireplace, wdiich was about one metre square. These were either 
paved or surrounded by upright stones. The plan is of the ruin 
of the house of Eric the Red in Haukadalr, Iceland. It shows the 
different forms of fireplace, and that the walls, which were built of 
turf, Avere one and a half metres thick. Outhouses were often 
dug into the hillside, and were sometimes walled up on the inside 
with stone and turf. Huins of such old settlements in Iceland are 
usually low, grass-grown ridges and hollows. 

When Professor Tlorsford first visited the site which his studv 



V IN LAND AND ITS RUINS. 



of maps and literature had led liim to believe was Vinlaiid, be 
found a few bollows in tbe billside and also some broad, low ridges 
on tbe level ground, indicating tbat a building about twenty metres 
long by five metres broad bad once stood tbere. Tbere ^vas also 
a mound some distance away Avbicb bas since proved to be of mod- 
ern construction. 

i^o digging was done bere until after Professor Ilorsford's 
deatb, witb tbe exception of a few trendies across tbe supposed 
site of Leif Erikson's bouse on tbe otber side of tbe creek. In 
1896, during a visit of Dr. Yaltyr Gudmundsson and Mr. Tbor- 
steinn Erlingsson, of Coi)enbagen and Iceland, extensive exca- 
vations were made, leaving practit-ally notbing unexamined at 
tbis site. 

Tbree kinds of eartb were revealed. Tbe upper layer was 
of black loam from tbirty to forty centimetres deep: below tbis 
was a yellow^ soil of 
sand and clay tbirty 
centimetres deep; and 
below" tbat again tbe 
sand and gravel wbicli 
bad remained undis- 
turbed since tbe close 
of tbe Glacial epocb. 

Tbe ruins w^ere 
at the junction of 
tbe black and yellow 
eartb. Jlbrougbout 
tbe black loam to tbe 
bottom, wberever we 
dug, witbin or away 

from tbe ruins, were scattered fragments of cliina, glass, glazed 
pottery, nails, pipestems, broken bricks, etc., all belonging to tbe 
period of tbe occupation of tbis region by tbe Englisb. Xone of 
these w^ere found in places where their presence would show that 
they belonged to or preceded these ruins. In the paved pathway, 
which will be described later, a few pieces of brick lie between the 
stones, but not deeper than similar fragments of l)rick were found 
in the undisturbed earth near by, apparently trodden in by the 
cattle which have been pastured there for years. There were also 
objects of aboriginal manufacture, such as stone implements, pot- 
tery, pieces of flint, etc. Occasionally, at different levels, remains 
of fires were found, some of Avliich were merely thin layers of char- 
coal and ashes. There were, however, two well-built fireplaces, 
in good condition, entirely unlike each other. One of these 




Old Wall in a (kllak in Fort ^Villiam Henry, Maine. 



VINLAND AND ITS RUINS. 




was an Indian clambake, neatly paved and piled with ashes 
and unopened clam shells. This lay sixty-three centimetres 
below the sod. The photograph is not of this fireplace, but is a 
good example of all Indian fireplaces or clambakes in Massa- 
chusetts. 

The second firej^lace, which was about one metre square, sur- 
rounded by upright stones at the four corners and filled with oak 
charcoal, but no ashes, was the distinctive feature of this ruin, 
and resembled the cooking fireplaces of the Icelanders. The 
absence of ashes has been accounted for by absorption in the 

soft clay soil. Ashes 
often disaj^pear in 
this way, but caji be 
detected with acids. 

Although the out- 
line of the walls of 
the long house can 
only be suggested, 
the few stones which 
were found at the 
base of the old walls 
were placed about a 
metre and a half 
apart, as in the walls of the Saga-time. This, so far as is known, 
is peculiar to that period and race. Iroquois long houses were 
constructed for communal use, and were usually from one hun- 
dred to three hundred feet long. The chief traces left are fire 
rows and kitchen middens. They are not known to have used 
stone foundations, nor to have made any attempt at regularity of 
outline. The drawing shows the method of construction of these 
long houses, which were built only by the Indians of the Iroquois 
tribe. 

Depressions which appeared to be the sites of old huts 
were in the hillside back of the terrace on which the long house 
stood, but the roadway in front had apparently destroyed 
all but one of these, and had also carried away the front wall 
of this. 

This hut was four metres across the front, and may have been 
five metres deep. When the sod, stones, and the clearings, which 
had been thrown in from the cultivated field above, were all re- 
moved, the remains of two side walls were found, supported and 
protected by the upper portions of these same walls which had 
slipped down from above and lay close to them, forming a com- 
pact mass of earth and stones. Xone of the stones in this wall were 



Old Wall at Y<n:v William 1Ieni:y, Maine. 



V INLAND AND ITS RUINS. 



11 



in contact witli each other, being separated by two or three inches 
of dark earth such as results from the decay of vegetable matter. 
There was no fireplace. The manner of constructing these walls 
was the counterpart of Icelandic work. I shall now show you how 
this differs from post-Columbian cellars. 

This is a photograph of a ruin in the Thjor's River Valley, in 
Iceland. It shows the sod betw^een tlie stones closely packed but 




ScpposED Norse Pathway ix Massachusetts. 



distinct. The stones in our early English and French cellars prac- 
tically touch each other, as in the old cellar in Fort William Henry, 
in Maine. Sometimes broken stones fill the interstices, as in an- 
other example of stonework at Fort William Henry. Mortar has 
been used here more or less since the beginning of the seventeenth 
century. 

Although European or post-Columbian walls and cellars differ 
considerably among themselves, it is within certain limits. Post- 




.C.N TuRif OF srpposED Norse Pathway. 



V INLAND AND ITS RUINS. 



13 




A Pavement at Fokt William Henry, >[ain?;. 



Colimibiau walls, or fouiKlatioii Avails wlicn built cu tlio surface 
of the ground, were practically houiogeueous iu character, the 
French only attain- 
ing to one metre 
in thickness, whereas 
Icelandic walls were 
disposed in three dis- 
tinct parts, the inner 
and outer sides being 
constrncted in layers 
and the space be- 
tween being filled in 
wJth closely packed 
earth, while they 
were never less than 
a metre and a half 

thick. . 1 • 1 

Icelandic outhouses when dug into a hillside dispensed witli 
the triple wall at the back and on the sides, and thus when stone- 
faced partially resemble our cellars. But even then they still 
retain one characteristic feature, in their alternate layers of turf 

and stone. . n i 4. 

While this hut was being dug out, our attention was called to 
stones protruding thr.uigh \lic turf a short distance away and 

nearer to the water. 
AVhen the earth was 
cleared away, it 
proved to be a rude 
stone-laid pathway 
leading along the 
margin of the old 
creek to the river. 
Here at the landing 
place a similar path- 
way branch (mI away 
in another direction, 
stopping suddenly a 
few metres south of 
the supposed house of 
Thorfinn Karlsefni. This pathway is called in Iceland a sjdvav- 
gata, or path to the sea. Ancient pavings have been found at Fort 
William Henry, near Pemaquid, Maine. They are, however, simi- 
lar to many street pavements still to be found in our Eastern cities. 
There is also a remarkable paved gutter at the Lewis Farm, in 




A Pavement at Pemaiji hi. Maine. 



H 



V INLAND AND ITS RUINS. 



Maine, which has long interested historians. But none of these 
resemble the sjdvar-gata in its peculiar construction, especially 
where it broadens and divides with a wide margin of pebbles on 
one side and small heaps of stones on the other. 

This map was made for Professor Horsford about ten years 
ago. It shows the site of the long house, in which the Icelandic 
fireplace was found, and the cot, in which Icelandic walls were 
found. The paved path ran along the shore in front. Professor 
Horsford fixed Thorfinn's landing place a short distance south of 
this, on solid ground. Geologists are unable to say how long ago 




Map of the supposed JS'orse Ruin in Cambhidge, Massachusetts. 



the salt marshes were formed. They are on Winthrop's map of 
1634, but the sjdvar-gata could hardly have been accessible as a 
landing place after their formation. 

In summary, it may be said that at the only point of land on 
the coast of North America which we have found to correspond 
with the description of the site of Thorfinn Karlsefni's houses, 
ruins have been dug out which bear peculiar features character- 
istic of the period in Iceland known as the Saga-time, and differ- 
ing in certain essential features from the handiwork of all the 
native races of North America, and, as far as is known at present, 
from all other races in Europe or in America in post-Columbian 
days. 



V INLAND AND ITS RUINS. 15 



Extracts from the Reports of Dr. Gndmundsson and Mr. Erlingsson. 

The following extracts, from reports by Dr. Gudmundssou and Mr. 
Erlingsson, refer to the ruins described in the preceding paper. The 
plan for these researches was first to compare the aforesaid ruins with 
the work of the native races supposed to have inhabited or visited these 
shores, next with that of the N^orsemen of the eleventh century, and 
later, if necessary, with the earliest English, French, Spanish, and Dutch 
ruins on these shores. Dr. Gudmundsson and Mr. Erlingsson noted the 
points of resemblance between these and Icelandic ruins, and in their 
reports by request wrote everything they could think of in opposition 
to, as well as in favor of, their being of Norse origin. 

When these gentlemen left Cambridge the characteristic features of 
the early post-Columbian ruins on this coast had not been ascertained, 
arfd these researches were not finished satisfactorily vmtil a year and a 
half after the Icelanders returned to Europe. 



From Dr. Gudmundsson'' s Report. 

The next place into which we dug was a depression or hollow in the 
hillside in a northerly direction from the above-mentioned place. Here 
we found unquestionable remains of a house which had been dug into 
the hillside, with walls constructed of stones, and layers of earth between 
the single rows of stones. The foundation and the lower parts of the 
two side walls were solid and well preserved, but the whole back wall, 
with the exception of a single row (the foundation), had fallen down. 
The stones from this and the upper parts of the side walls covered the 
whole bottom, so that they at the first glance seemed to form a pave- 
raent. When carefully examined, it was evident, however, that most of 
the stones which covered the bottom belonged to the walls, though some 
might have rolled down from the hill above the house. Thus it could 
clearly be seen how some of the stones had fallen down from the walls 
and some were just sliding down, without having as yet reached to the 
bottom, as some stones underneath had hindered them from gliding far- 
ther. The front wall of the house was wanting, and must either have 
been of wood or — which seems most likely — have been spoiled when the 
road which runs close past the house was made. When the bottom was 
cleared of the stones M^hich had fallen in it proved to consist of a level 
black floor. 

The construction and situation of this house are quite Scandinavian, 
built in the same way as houses in Iceland and Greenland. I would 
therefore not have had the least hesitation to declare it to be a ruin of 
a house built by Scandinavians in the pre-Columbian period if between 
and under the stones which covered the bottom we had not found some 
pieces of glazed pottery and bricks, of which some small pieces were 
found trodden down even into the floor itself. This seems to indicate 
that the house must be post-Columbian, or at least have been occupied 
by the first English or French colonists. As in the meantime several 
American scholars, with whom I have had an opportunity to discuss this 
matter, positively declare that the post-Columbian colonists never would 
have built such walls of stones withoi;t mortar, and it must be regarded 
as quite certain that Indian people could not have built it, there seems 



i6 V INLAND AND ITS RUINS. 

to be no other explanation jjossible than that this ruin must be Scandi- 
navian, and, having been found by some of the first post-Columbian colo- 
nists (e. g., some fishermen), had been repaired and occupied by them for a 
shorter or longer time. If it can be proved that such a building as this 
could not have been built by the post-Columbian colonists nor by Indians, 
it can hardly be anything else than Scandinavian. This, however, must 
be left to American scholars, who have sufficient knowledge in these mat- 
ters. But so long as this is not proved, the pieces of pottery and bricks 
which were found in it rather seem to speak for its post-Columbian ori- 
gin, as those pieces must have been there when the house fell down, and 
such a house as this built in the beginning of the eleventh century could 
not have stood five hundred years before its roof and the upper parts of 
the walls fell down. 

On the other side of the road we found an end of an old path paved 
with small stones, running from the house in the hillside along the edge 
of the old river bank down to a kind of promontory which in olden time, 
when the water stood much higher than it now does, seems to have served 
as a landing place. In the middle of this path, which was from about 
six to ten inches vmder the surface, was a hollow as trodden down by the 
feet of men and (perhaps) horses. This path is very like Icelandic paths, 
such as may still be found in many places in Iceland. Bvit as we in some 
places in this path found some bricks between the stones which formed 
its pavement, it must be regarded as doubtful whether it is Scandinavian. 
The bricks seem rather to speak for a post-Columbian origin, though 
the whole path is so primitive that it hardly can be suggested that so 
advanced a people as the first post-Columbian colonists should have made 
such a path. To settle the question whether it could belong to those 
colonists must be left to American scholars. This path seems, at any 
rate, to have been made by the same people who built the house in the 
hillside, so either both of them must be regarded as post-Columbian or 
they both are Scandinavian. Another path runs from this landing j)lace 
in a westerly direction along the old river bank, where it stops very 
abruptly on a certain spot a very short distance east of the supposed 
" Thorfinn's house." As I could not find any other reason for its stop- 
ping on this spot than that near it stood a building, I examined the river 
bank beside it, and here I found the earth, about eight inches under the 
surface, mixed with charcoal, which could indicate that some refuse from 
a house had been thrown there. This seems to lead to the conclusion 
that there at the end of this path really has stood a building, of which 
we could not now expect to find any traces, or even a building con- 
structed of turf only (turf walls), which also might have wholly disap- 
peared, as earth walls on an elevated ground like this perhaps might have 
blown away. 

The result of these researches is briefly, according to my opinion, this : 
As far as concerns the construction, both the house in the hillside and 
the two paths, or the two branches of the path, could be of Scandinavian 
origin, but I am not so well acquainted with the life and customs of 
the first post-Columbian colonists as to be able to decide whether they 
could not have been made by them. This, therefore, must be left to 
American scholars. Very resiiectfully yours, 

Valtyr Gudmundsson. 
Cambridge, Mass., July 16, 1896. 



V IN LAND AND ITS RUINS. 17 



From ]\fr. 7?/7//i,r/.sso//'.s Report. 

It is not uncommon in Iceland that houses, especially small out- 
houses, are dug into small hills, hillsides, or sloping ground, just as this 
house is. It is, in fact, huilt very like what I have seen in outhouses in 
many places in Iceland, and what is left of the walls here nobody could 
distinguish from Icelandic walls. The size and the whole fonn is also 
very like an outhouse, but as most frequently in outhouses either all the 
four walls are made of stones or none of them, it would seem strange 
that one of the walls here is completely wanting. But those stones which 
were used in it could have been used in the road which has been made 
past the house, or, besides, it is possible that the front wall of the house 
has been a wooden one, and, although this is very rare in outhouses cer-' 
tainly, yet it must be taken into consideration that here it is much 
easier to procure wood than in Iceland. The whole form, the method, 
and the condition of the house itself seemed like nothing else than that 
it was built by Icelandic hands, although some of the stones seem to be 
rather small, but, as pieces of pottery and bricks have been found beneath 
the stones which had fallen down from the walls and on the floor itself, 
it seems to prove sufficiently that the house can not belong to the old 
Icelandic period; but as nobody has expected such a house here, the dis- 
covery is very remarkable. 

This path is so like paths in Iceland, for which there have been gath- 
ered stones and which later on have been trodden down by the feet of 
horses and men, that I would not have hesitated to declare that it might 
be Scandinavian if in it there had not been found bricks beside the other 
stones, which seems to indicate that the path must belong to the same 
period as the house which was dug into the hill. This discovery must 
therefore, too, be regarded as very remarkable. . . . 

Respectfully, 

Thorsteinn Erlingsson. 

Cambridge^ Mass., •/'//// 7,.^ ISOO. 



Appletons^ Popular Science Monthly. 

For the last half century scientific methods of 
study have been gradually extending, until they are 
now applied to every branch of human knowledge. 

The great problems of society are making 
urgent demands upon public attention. Science 
furnishes the only means by which they can be 
intelligently studied. 

This magazine gives the results of scientific re- 
search in these and other fields. Its articles are 
from the pens of the most eminent scientists , of 
the world. 

It translates the technical language of the 
specialist into plain English suitable for the gen- 
eral reader. 

Among the subjects discussed in its pages are : 
Psychology, Education, The Functions of Govern- 
ment, Municipal Reform, Sumptuary Legislation, 
Relations of Science and Religion, Hygiene, Sani- 
tation, and Domestic Economy, Natural History, 
Geography, Travel, Anthropology, and the phys- 
ical sciences. 

Trominent among its recent contributors are 
such men as 

ANDREW D. IVHITE, EDIVARD ATKINSON, 

DAyiD A. IV ELLS, HERBERT SPENCER, 

APPLETON MORGAN, EDIVARD S. MORSE, 

JAMES SULLY, T. MITCHELL PRUDDEN, M. D., 

IVILLIAM T. LUSK, M. D., C. HANFORD HENDERSON, 

FREDERICK STARR, CHARLES SEDGIVICK MINOT, 

GARRET P. SERVISS, G. T. IV. PATRICK, 

DAVID STARR JORDAN, M. ALLEN STARR. 

25 cents a number ; S3.00 per jnniim. 
D. APPLETON & CO.. Publishers, New York. 



.^<- 



,<*-?■■< 



<! 



\ r^ 




011 251 248 2 





&;y 



